Krieglstein's Negative Attitudes Toward LGBT Students

Looking specifically at Illinois school social workers, Krieglstein (2003) measured heterosexism in connection with previous education, religion, and positive contacts with members of the LGBT community. The ATLG scale was administered to 409 workers who held an MSW degree. The sample consisted of 84% white, 77% female, and over 65% Christian (Krieglstein, 2003). 15% of the school social workers had scores indicating nonheterosexist attitudes, while 5% showed scores that indicated heterosexist attitudes. The amount of education on sexual orientation was found to have a negative correlation with the participants scores, showing that the more education they received, the lower their level of heterosexists attitudes appeared to be. 78% of the respondents stated that they had no previous or insufficient training with LGBT clients (Krieglstein, 2003). A positive correlation was found between religiosity and heterosexism, with 65% of the participants indicating a strong adherence to the Christian faith. The findings of (Crisp, 2012; Berkman & Zinberg, 1997) were similar to the findings of Krieglstein (2003), which showed that there is a negative correlation between the participant’s negative attitudes toward LGBT individuals and the amount of education they have received on the topic.

Gaps in Literature
The fact that all of the reviewed studies utilized the same standardized instruments to test their hypothesis points to the validity and reliability of the studies.

The ATLG, HATH, GAP, and IHP scales have been used in numerous studies and have demonstrated to fall within the range of excellence in reliability (Pedhazur & Schmelkin, 2001). Another strength that the reviewed studies have is they are a relatively large sample size. The majority of the studies sample size ranges from 150 – 300 participants, with the majority of the studies having a relatively high response

rate.
Over the past 30 years there has been substantial research compiled on the attitudes and perceptions that social workers and social work students hold in regards to members of the LGBT community. The State of the Social Work Profession: A systematic Review of the Literature on Antigay Bias (Chonody & Smith, 2013) stated that since 1980, a total of 1164 articles have been published that address the issue of social worker and/or social work student’s attitudes toward the LGBT community, and the impact that it may have on their ability to provide competent services. Of the 1,164 articles, 31 empirical articles met their inclusion criteria. The relatively few number of empirical studies that met the eligibility requirements demonstrate that the quantity of research regarding this topic is relatively small, with limited research conducted in the past decade. Of the 31 empirical articles that met the eligibility requirements for inclusion into Chonody and Smith (2013), nearly 70% of the studies were conducted prior to 2005 (Chonody & Smith, 2013). There are two studies that are included in this literature review that were released after the publication of Chonody and Smith (2013). Even with the inclusion of these two studies (Gato &Fontaine, 2013; the National Center for Transgender Equality [NCTE], 2015), the amount of recent research on this topic is relatively limited. There is also a significant disparity in the representation of sex and racial identity among the participants. A large portion of the participants were white females. These disparities are to be expected, given that women make up approximately 80% of the social work population, as well as 87% of professional social workers identify as Caucasian and/or White (Socialworkers.org, 2013).